Rose Namajunas

Rose Gertrude Namajunas, also known as the Thug Rose, is an American MMA fighter of Lithuanian

descent. An expert in Taekwondo, Karate and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, she is currently competing in the

women’s strawweight segment of UFC and is the current champion.

Early Life and Career

Rose Namajunas picked up combat sports at a very early age, when she started practicing

Taekwondo at 5 years old. In the later years, she would also pick up karate, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and

wrestling.

As an amateur MMA fighter, Namajunas had a perfect record of 4-0 between 2010 and 2013. She

went pro in 2013 at Invicta Fighting Championship 4. Her first match was against Emily Kagan and

she won it via submission. She also won against Kathina Catron in her second professional match,

but lost against Tecia Torres.

Career at UFC

Rosa Namajunas was signed by UFC in 2013 along with 10 other strawweight fighters for the season

20 of The Ultimate Fighter. In the first-ever UFC strawweight women’s championship, Namajunas

went till the final defeating the likes of Alex Chambers, Joanne Calderwood and Randa Markos. But

she lost out to Carla Esparza in the Finale in December, 2014.

In the next couple of years, Namajunas managed to bag victories against Anegla Hill, Paige VanZant

and Tecia Torres, to whom she had lost previously on Invicta FC. In 2017, she made happen one of

the biggest upsets in UFC history when she knocked out strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk

to become the new champion. It is important to note that Namajunas stated after her victory, that

she intended to use her new champion status to spread awareness on mental illness.

She managed to defend the title successfully in a rematch with Jedrzejczyk in 2018. But after that

she had to take a long break to recover from a case of spinal stenosis.

Current Titles:

UFC Women's Strawweight Champion

Weight: 115 LBs / 52 KGs

Class: Strawweight

Win-Loss-Draw: 8-3-0